ach vs ak, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ach” is an intj and “ak” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,212
“ach” frequency rank: #15,974
“ak” frequency rank: 64186
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ach	ak
Definition	oh	irmão (que não é o primogênito)

Letter map: ach vs ak

Shared letters muted; letters that set ach and ak apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

ach

2 ch

Part-of-speech tell for ach / ak

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ach is anintj and akanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64186, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ach is recorded at frequency rank #48,212, classified as anintj. ak is at rank #15,974, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ák̚/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 64186, this pair ranks #5,880 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ach vs ak

Shared letters: a. Private to "ach": ch. Private to "ak": k.

"ach" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "ak" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ach" for "ak" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ach" is an intj and "ak" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ach" or "ak" show up more?

"ak" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,974 in our Portuguese list, against #48,212 for "ach". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ach" and "ak".

Full dictionary entry for "ach" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ak" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #5,880 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ach" and "ak" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ach vs acs". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #5,880 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.